Local companies tap into $3.9 billion replacement project

Larry Ruliso, Times Union

By Larry Rulison

Published 3:25 pm, Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Willis Avenue Bridge which sits on a barge at the Port of Coeymans, New York July 12, 2010, in the Hudson River ready to ship to Bayonne, New Jersey tomorrow morning for the final installation of mechanicals and then it will be re floated and pushed to it's final installation across the Harlem River at Willis Avenue. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

While the state's $3.9 billion project to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge will make life easier for tens of thousands of commuters in the lower Hudson Valley, it already is boosting the Capital Region economy.

The new bridge is projected to open in 2018, replacing a span completed in 1955 to carry the New York State Thruway over the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has expedited and streamlined the project, has been showcasing it as an example of his vision of modernizing aging infrastructure to boost the state's economy, calling it the New NY Bridge project.

Several local companies are supplying materials and services for the project, which was awarded to a conglomerate of construction and design businesses. They formed a joint venture called Tappan Zee Constructors LLC that has awarded 121 contracts to various subcontractors and suppliers, a small fraction of the subcontracts that will eventually be awarded.

Carver Cos. of Altamont, which is owned by businessman Carver Laraway and operates the Port of Coeymans and Coeymans Recycling Center, will supply stone to the Tappan Zee project. The aggregate comes from quarries in Coeymans and is shipped by barge down the Hudson River for use in the riverbed. The port is 10 nautical miles south of Albany.

And that's just the start, company officials say. The Port of Coeymans also will become a staging area where steel beams for the bridge will be assembled before traveling the Hudson by barge to the construction site.

"The Port of Coeymans is a valuable economic driver for the town of Coeymans and our region," Carver Cos. said in a statement to the Times Union last week. "These two activities alone will generate upwards of 100-plus jobs."

The subcontract to the Port of Coeymans is expected to be worth "millions of dollars," a spokeswoman said.

On Friday, the Port of Coeymans estimated that nearly 200 jobs would be created as a result of the Tappan Zee work.

It's unclear what Carver Cos. will be paid in the deal or which companies will assemble the bridge parts. The Thruway Authority did not immediately have those details. Laraway was out of town and was not available for comment.

The Port of Coeymans, a former brickyard on 400 acres and 3,300 feet of riverfront just four miles from the closest Thruway exit, has filled this role before for major infrastructure projects, which appears to have helped it win a role in the new bridge project.

In 2010, a 350-foot swing span that replaced the old one at the Willis Avenue Bridge in New York City was built at the port and sent down the Hudson on two barges.

In 2006, New York City's 145th Street Bridge was also assembled there and floated down the river, as have been pre-cast highway pieces for the Nassau Expressway on Long Island.

Workers at the Port of Coeymans will assemble the bridge superstructure components, not including mechanical and electrical systems, into modules that will be shipped to the bridge site starting in December, a spokeswoman for Tappan Zee Constructors said.

Carver officials say the projects have fueled the growth and operations of the port.

"Since Carver Laraway began operations at the port, significant investments have been made to the site, including equipment purchases and upgrades and various improvements have been made such as the demolition of rundown buildings," Carver Cos. said in a statement.

Thruway officials said MJ Engineering and Landscaping of Clifton Park also is a subcontractor on the bridge project.

A Times Union review of Tappan Zee Constructors contract documents found that Schenectady based QCQA Laboratories Inc., has provided construction materials testing on the project. The company did not return a call seeking comment.

The Cuomo administration has also set a goal of 10 percent participation by businesses owned by minorities and women and said 53 of the 121 subcontractors and suppliers hired for the project are in the category.

"With an infrastructure project of this scale, the roles filled by (minority- and women-owned businesses) are as diverse as the companies themselves and the door of opportunity is just beginning to open," said Brian Conybeare, special adviser to the governor for the New NY Bridge project.